I don’t know about you but I spend a lot of time in online bookish spaces – from booktube, to booktok, to blogs – and I love getting book recommendations from all sorts of different people. The only problem is that often a lot of the book recommendations seem to be the same popular books over and over again.
So, here you’ll find 14 books all from different genres that you might not have heard of before! All of them have around 15k or less reviews on Goodreads.
Mother For Dinner – Shalom Auslander
Seventh receives a call from his estranged mother. She’s on her deathbed and she wishes for all of her children to eat her body after she dies.
Seventh is a Cannibal-American, a once proud and thriving ethnic group, who are now forced to operate in secrecy. Seventh and his siblings all have complicated relationships with their mother and when she finally dies they must decide whether they want to do as she wishes and follow the ancient rituals before eating her.
GENRE: Adult, Literary
People of Abandoned Character – Clare Whitfield
Set in London 1888, after the death of her family Susannah is left alone, so rushes into marriage with a young and wealthy surgeon, Thomas. After a passionate honeymoon, they return to London and then everything begins to change. Thomas becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He begins to stay out all night and when he returns, he’s covered in blood.
Susannah soon hears stories of women being brutally murdered in Whitechapel, and then she begins to suspect that her new husband might actually be Jack the Ripper.
GENRE: Adult, Thriller, Historical
Wise Creatures – Deirdre Sullivan
Daisy is a former child psychic and hasn’t thought much about her past for a long time. When she was only 6-years-old, Daisy could hear the ‘wise creatures’ in the walls that would tell her secrets.
Daisy’s parents died in a mysterious accident so 10 years later, she lives with her aunt and her cousin, Nina.
Nina is her best friend and they have the best relationship… until Nina becomes distant and begins to talk of murmurs in the walls.
GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal
Heatwave – Victor Jestin
17-year-old Leo is on holiday with his parents at a campsite where, one evening, he sees another boy strangle himself with the ropes of a swing. In a panic, Leo drags the body to the beach buries him.
Over the next day, Leo wanders around the campsite, haunted by guilt and fear, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce.
GENRE: Adult, Literary
Knot My Type – Evie Mitchell
Frankie is a sexologist in a wheelchair who hosts a podcast all about sex. A listener wants to learn about accessible rope play and she has no idea what to say so she enlists the help of Jay Wood who knows more than most about the topic.
Jay’s not a one-girl type of man… but he soon finds himself becoming more and more attracted to Frankie.
GENRE: Adult, Romance
The King is Dead – Benjamin Dean
James is 17-years-old when his dad, the king, unexpectedly dies and he is forced onto the throne becoming the first ever Mixed Race British Monarch. He quickly finds that he is woefully unprepared for what is about to come. Alongside grieving his dad and dealing with the racist public, his secret boyfriend has disappeared and someone is leaking all of his secrets to the tabloids.
GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery
Faking Under the Mistletoe – Ashley Shepherd
Olivia Langley is the human embodiment of Christmas cheer so she’s put in charge of organising the Christmas events at the company she interns at. Only problem is that her boss is the grinchiest man she has ever met.
But one day at the Christmas Tree lighting, they bump into his ex-girlfriend and Olivia kisses him to make her jealous. And, now she’s ended up in a fake relationship with her boss.
GENRE: Adult, Romance
If I Have to Be Haunted – Miranda Sun
Cara Tang has always done her best to be the perfect daughter and that includes trying to ignore all of the ghosts that she sees every single day. But one day, Cara stumbles across the body of her school rival, Zach, and accidentally talks to his ghost.
After consulting her ghost-grandmother, they learn that he was most likely killed by a magical snake and they can bring him back if they find the cure within a week. So Cara and Zach head off on a Percy Jackson-style quest through a magical world full of monsters and find the cure together.
GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery, Romance
The Toll House – Carley Reagon
After a difficult few years, Kelda and her young son, Dylan, have just moved into an old toll house on the edge of town for a fresh start.
But soon after they move in, Kelda finds a death mask hidden behind one of the walls and suddenly everything changes. Strange things begin to happen. Kelda can’t help but constantly feel like she’s being watched, Dylan is having nightmares and he swears he keeps seeing people in his bedroom.
As Dylan’s behaviour becomes increasingly concerning, Kelda begins to do some research into the house’s mysterious past.
GENRE: Adult, Horror
Famous for a Living – Melissa Ferguson
When her business partner is accused of serious financial crimes, influencer Cat Cranwell goes into hiding. She accepts an offer from her uncle to work at a National Park in Montana – about as far from her real life as she’s ever known it.
Moving from her Manhattan loft to a tent-sized cabin with a roommate is a big change but she begins to reacquaint herself with the most honest parts of herself… and also begins to fall for the ruggedly handsome park ranger.
GENRE: Adult, Romance
Idol – Louise O’Neill
Samantha Miller is an influencer and to her young fans – ‘her ‘girls’ – she’s everything they want to be. She tells them how to live their lives, how to be happy and how to find their truth. Determined to speak her truth, she writes an essay about her sexual awakening with her female best friend, Lisa. Sam hasn’t spoken to Lisa for years, but then Lisa gets in touch to say she remembers the experience very differently… and a lot darker.
GENRE: Adult, Literary
And Don’t Look Back – Rebecca Barrow
Harlow has lived her entire life on the run with her mother but she has no idea the reason they keep running. One night, her mother is unexpectedly killed in a car accident and her last words direct Harlow to a safety deposit box and beg her to keep running.
But when Harlow finds a deed to a house in the box, she must decide whether she’ll go to the house to find answers about her past, or keep running.
GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery
This is Not the Jess Show – Anna Carey
It’s 1998 and Jess’ life seems to be going in the perfect direction, everything is going right for her. Until one day a tiny black object with an apple logo falls at her feet. But Jess’ friends refuse to acknowledge the object and it begins to seem like everyone is hiding secrets from her.
Nothing in Jess’ world is as it seems and she slowly begins to realise that her entire life has been curated and it’s nothing more than someone else’s entertainment.
GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery
Wranglestone – Darren Charlton
In post-apocalyptic America, a small community is protected from the restless dead by the islands of Lake Wranglestone. Peter has lived here his entire life but never really felt like he belongs there until he becomes close to Cooper, a boy he’s always watched from afar.
But as they fall in love, they make a dark discovery about their sanctuary’s past that forces them to question everything they’ve ever known.
GENRE: Young Adult, Romance, Post-apocalyptic
